planet bbq

Time is always moving on, Nothing can stop it. The question is whether we use our time properly or not. We can’t do anything about the past, but what happens in the future depends on what we do now. Dalai Lama

If you, like me, live in Australia you will have noticed that we have a few fires going on here at the moment. Bushfires, not BBQ fires. If you don’t live in Australia you will have come across the global media coverage, unless you live on the moon that is.

These bushfires have increased in severity and frequency year-on-year over the last 20 years and are “directly related to man-made climate change.”

Every time I say this, some people go like: “eerrrrm there is no evidence, you can’t say that!”

Yes, I can.

Like so many people I am not a scientist. I am also not an activist. I am more of an analyst, my reading skills are up to par with the average human being, I have a brain and in most cases, I tend to apply critical thinking and common sense.

My common sense tells me: People who have studied climate science, geoscience, meteorology, and other related sciences tend to know a thing or two about climate change. They write research papers and studies that are peer-reviewed. This means other experts get to read their stuff before it gets published and they call bullshit when they see it. Unlike some of our global political leaders who can say what they want on TV and everyone just nods.

As a sailor, I was always interested in weather and weather patterns, but over the last two years or so I have made an effort to read more, do my own research on existing issues and get more informed in general.

Once you understand the background and the science, the first thing you want to do is to vomit straight away. Then you take a deep breath and start thinking how on earth are we going to turn this around if we are still debating the if and not the what?

It also occurred to me that people may not be informed because on the surface it looks like there are experts on both sides of the climate change pond (excuse the pun). The “man-made-climate-change experts” and the “global-warming-is natural-there-is-no-crisis experts”.

As it happens the “global-warming-is-natural-there-is-no-crisis experts” turn out to be experts (at least some), but with a bit of further digging, you’ll find they are experts in scientific areas that are as closely related to climate science as is my personal relationship with the Queen of England.

You may have heard about the list of “500 scientists and professionals” who have recently co-signed a letter addressed to the United Nation’s Secretary called: “There is no climate emergency”. The letter claims that “Natural, as well as anthropogenic factors, cause warming”, “Global warming has not increased natural disasters” and other things like “Climate policy relies on inadequate models”.

A group of climate scientists (people who actually studied climate change!) categorized all 506 signatories according to their self-identified field of expertise. Only 10 identified as climate scientists, and 4 identified as meteorologists. (Together, that’s 2.8% of the total.) Signatories in totally unrelated academic fields (for example, psychology, philosophy, archaeology, and law) outnumbered climate scientists by two to one.

Victor Venema, one of the climate scientist said: “The text is a masterpiece: next to the political opinions expressed, every single sentence is either wrong, insignificant or irrelevant for the question of whether climate change is a serious problem for humanity.”

In case you were wondering, there is a consensus that climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities (increased Co2 emissions). In addition, most of the leading scientific organizations worldwide have issued public statements endorsing this position.

However, let’s just assume for a minute our “human activities” (ie. carbon dioxide into the atmosphere due to the burning of fossil fuels and other activities) is not a contributor to global warming and it is the sun or some magic spell that aliens cast over the earth (as many climate change deniers seem to believe) what is is wrong with: